Saturday, December 17, 2016

December 17th has been declared the Wright Brothers Day. Over just one hundred years ago on December 17th 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright became the first to power a plane. Thanks to this duo it is possible to escape to paradise somewhere as well as to take a plane ride home to visit friends and family for the holiday.

Take the outer wrap off a pack of gum sticks, use a roll of smarties or other similar roll candy for the plane body, and then attach the gum stick wings to the plane's Life Saver wheels using rubber bands. Easy fun candy airplane treat!

Melt the candy melts and shortening together in 30 second intervals in your microwave until melted. As soon as everything is melted, start dipping the Bugles into the chocolate, letting the excess chocolate drip off. Let them set up until firm on parchment or wax paper. When the Bugles are set, remelt the red chocolate if necessary and dip just the bottom of the Bugles into the white sprinkles. Then flip the Bugle over and dip the top in red chocolate and firmly press a mini marshmallow on top. Let set again on the parchment or wax paper

Scooping these little guys out isn’t nearly as labor-intensive as I thought it would be. While it’s the step that took the longest – we’re using 24 of them after all – some didn’t even have seeds or the ribs in them to scoop out.

After sauteing the pancetta and onion, it’s a quick, easy hop to fixing up the rest of the filling. Ricotta, fresh-grated Parmesan cheese and little baby peas complete it.

Stuffed and ready to be baked!

We knew the filling would ooze out a little bit, and that was OK. It was very easy to slip a pancake-style spatula underneath them and onto our plates. Maybe a little TOO easy.

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring frequently, until brown and crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta and drain on paper towels. Add the onion to the pan and cook until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine the onion, pancetta, cheeses, and peas. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Using a paring knife, cut 1/2-inch from the stem-end of the peppers. Remove the seeds and veins. Using a small dessert spoon, fill each pepper with the ricotta mixture. Place the filled peppers on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until the peppers begin to soften. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

Whether a non alcoholic or alcoholic version our family has long loved eggnog. There are some that do not like this holiday favorite but others like my husband and children feel that it is not the holidays until they get some. Oh so yummy.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish.In a large bowl, combine bread, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and butterscotch chips; mixture should be the consistency of oatmeal. Pour into prepared pan.Bake in preheated oven 1 hour, until nearly set. (It should have a "thigh wiggle" or wiggle as much as a well endowed thigh.) Serve warm or cold.

1 styrofoam cone (small or medium size) from your local craft store. ToothpicksCookie cutters with various shapes (I used a gingerbread-man shaped and a star shaped cutter Assorted fruits - I used green and black grapes, strawberries, kiwis, dried cranberries and a honeydew melon.Cilantro garnish.My styrofoam cone was green in color, if you only have a white one then I suppose you could drape some green paper on a white cone or attach fruits very densely so it resembles more like a tree trunk.Using the cookie cutters create various shapes out of the melon slices.Attach toothpicks to the styrofoam cone. Attach one piece each of a fruit to a toothpick. (Think free-form; as the tree starts building you will know more about which fruit combinations are looking better and how densely packed you want your tree to be).Continue building the tree as dense as you want!Use cilantro leaves as grass garnish.Enjoy your new edible fruit tree!!source here

Thursday, December 15, 2016

1 pound ground beef1 package (16 ounces) frozen vegetables for stew, divided (make sure you get the kind that has peas in it)1 can (10-1/4 ounces) beef gravy2 cups mashed potatoes (I used the prepared kind that is sold in the refrigerated section. . They are not at all bad.)16 whole black peppercorns1/4 cup ketchup (I put mine in a small squeeze bottle to make it easier to pipe the scarves)

In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.Remove 24 peas and one carrot chunk from the stew vegetables; set aside. Add the remaining vegetables to beef. Cook until vegetables are thawed. Add gravy; mix well.Pour into an ungreased 9-in. pie plate. Top with eight mashed potato snowmen, using 1 tablespoon of potatoes for each head and 3 tablespoons for each body. (I used two sizes of ice cream scoops to do this)Bake, uncovered, at 350℉ for 20 minutes. (see note below)Meanwhile, with a sharp knife, cut the reserved carrot into eight strips. Insert one strip into each snowman for a nose. Place three reserved peas on each for buttons. Add peppercorns for eyes. Drizzle ketchup between head and body to form a scarf.

Note: add the peas, eyes and noses before baking and piped the scarves on when took the dish out of the oven.

Cabbage is a cold weather vegetable and in December it is available fresh in some areas. This is a great dish to serve next to your Christmas ham or turkey. It accompanies most dinners and I love that it also offers so much inside including cranberries. Enjoy!!!

1⁄2 cup apple cider vinegar

3⁄4 cup Organic Cane sugar (I use Florida Crystals Brand)

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 teaspoon mustard seeds

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (12- or 16-ounce) package organic broccoli slaw mix

2 Organic Gala apples, chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan.Bring to a boil; boil 1 minute or until sugar dissolves.Remove from heat, and cool; whisk in oil.Combine slaw mix, apples, and cranberries in a large bowl.Pour vinaigrette over broccoli slaw, and toss well.Cover and chill.Serve with a slotted spoon.recipe source here

Christmas is a time for me that is filled in amazing colors. One of the things that we love to do is to make sugar cookies. While we often use sprinkles and icing these cookies have a painted appearance . Just follow this recipe and you will be able to create a treat as well.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. In a large bowl mix butter and sugar together with a pastry blender or by hand. Add egg and molasses and beat together with electric mixer on medium speed. Scrape bowl and add flour mixture. Blend by hand or mixer with dough hooks until just combined, do not overmix. Separate into two balls of equal size, placing each on plastic wrap. Flatten each and wrap tightly, then refrigerate 1 hour, or until very firm.Using one dough patty at a time, roll out with a floured rolling pin on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness and cut shapes with cookie cutters, as many as you can each time. Remove excess dough, reform patty, and return to refrigerator. With a metal spatula carefully transfer shapes to ungreased baking sheet, about 1/2 inch apart. Bake until just starting to brown, about 14 minutes. Repeat same process with second original dough patty, continue until dough is too small to cut shapes from.Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating with icing. Allow icing to harden completely before storing cookies, about 2-3 hours.

In a sauce pan over medium heat or in the microwave, melt white chocolate and peanut butter together. Add remaining ingredients and stir gently until cereal, nuts and marshmallows are coated in the chocolate/peanut butter mixture.Spread wax paper out on counters and drop spoonfuls of the treat onto the wax paper. Allow 30 minutes for clusters to set before serving or storing in an air-tight container

Our family is very diversified and often on the go. We are not always going in the same direction. There are 4 of us that work outside of the house, 3 of us that go to school and the rest try to hold the fort down. This is great that we all have a life but sometimes that life gets a bit busy. Meals on the run are often part of that. Preparing lunches for work or buying something at the grocery store all ready processed is needed. So I love this idea that I recently found for Taco Kits for Single Serve Meals.

Each kit will make 1 to 2 tacos depending how much is put into the bag. When fixing for lunch it

10 tablespoons sugar-divided ( I just put all in one bowl since it is for rolling the chilled dough in)

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon ( I sprinkled from my cinnamon canister)

Colored sugar optional

In a bowl, cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Just like when you make pie crust) Stir in the sour cream. Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 6-8 times or until the mixture holds together. Divide and shape into four balls and flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnite.

When you are ready to bake. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or use ungreased cookie sheets if you do not have parchment paper.

Unwrap one ball of dough. Roll the dough into the sugar on all sides and place onto a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap . Roll into a 12-inch x 5-inch rectangle. Remove top sheet. Sprinkle dough with the cinnamon. Lightly mark a line down center of dough, making two 6-inch x 5-inch rectangles. Don’t cut thru, this is just to make a line to roll dough to. Starting on short end, roll the dough towards your line jelly roll style. Then repeat on the other side until you have two rolls meeting in the middle. You have to peel the paper away from the dough as you roll. A butter knife works well if dough starts getting sticky.

Wrap the rolled dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer to chill for at least 30-minutes. This will make the dough easier to slice and bake. Now repeat the rolling process with the rest of the dough balls. While the dough is chilling you can now preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Once the dough has chilled. Remove from freezer. Cut into 1/2-inch slices and dip the cookies in sugar on both sides and place on prepared cookie sheets. This is where you can used colored sugars depending on the holiday.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown, turn cookies and bake for 5 to 8 minutes longer and remove to wire racks to cool. Mine took about 10 minutes on the first side and 5 on the second side. The last bath I just baked for 15 minutes and did not turn. They turned out perfect as well and then less chance for me to get burned!

Heat butter and chocolate chips in top of a double boiler over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Toss marshmallows and nuts in a large bowl; stir in chocolate. Tear five 9-inch sheets of waxed paper and sprinkle each generously with coconut. Divide dough into fifths and place each fifth on a sheet of waxed paper. Roll tightly into 2-inch diameter logs and refrigerate overnight or until firm. Before serving, unwrap from waxed paper and cut into 1/2" slices.

Directions: Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta per directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water. Over medium heat, brown meat until no longer pink. Drain and add taco seasoning and diced tomatoes. Allow to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Add cooked pasta, reserved water, cream cheese and sour cream. Stir until cheese and cream is incorporated and melted. Simmer over low heat about 3 minutes. Season with S & P as desired. Top off with desired amount of cheddar cheese.

Modifications:-I used the whole package of taco seasoning.

Here's what I started with:

Here's how I did it:

#1 I put the noodles in boiling water and cooked them according to the package. I also browned the hamburger meat.

#2 Once the beef was browned, I added a package of taco seasoning.

#3 I added a can of diced tomatoes.

#4 After the noodles were cooked, I drained them and added them to the ground beef.

#5 Next, came 1/2 of a block of light cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sour cream. Mix altogether.